Downers Grove South Student Gets Hit with Blackhawk Puck

Blackhawks make up for flying puck injury

Jayna Bardahl, Downers Grove South Print News Editor

April 13, 2017

Filed under Columns, Opinions

I’m sure you’ve all watched at least one Blackhawks game in your life. After all, living in Chicago you don’t really get a choice on whether or not to like hockey since our team has been one of the best in the NHL for as long as I can remember. So, if you’ve watched a game I can bet that you’ve also seen the few occasions when a player knocks the hockey puck over the protective glass so that it ends up in the stands of screaming hockey fans.

“Wow! That must be awesome to be the fan who catches that puck,” those were your thoughts watching that six ounce circle of rubber fly through the air, right?

In many ways, I imagined watching a spinning black hockey puck fly through the air to be just like catching a home run hit at a baseball game; the puck would be easy to spot and swiftly land in the hands of one of the United Center’s lucky fans. Oh how I wish this imagined reality had been the truth.

There were 10 minutes and 45 seconds left in the third period of Chicago Blackhawks game against the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Hawks were up by two goals when Blackhawks player Niklas Hjalmarsson knocked the puck flying over the protective glass and into the packed arena of passionate Blackhawks fans.

I happened to be at this game. My view was great from my fourth row seat positioned right next to the Blackhawks box. That was until my vision was completely blurred with gruesome blood dripping down my face.

As Hjalmarsson launched the puck over the glass I watched anxiously awaiting for the reaction of the excited fan who would get one of the best souvenirs of the night. First one person missed it, then another and before I could comprehend it, the puck was coming straight at me. It wasn’t coming straight into my hands like the swiftness I had expected, but instead it was aimed for the middle of my forehead and moving at around 100 mph and there was not much I could do to stop it.

Before I knew it the puck nailed me right in the head. Surprisingly I felt no pain, I turned and continued the conversation I was having. Everything was normal, maybe just a bump I thought. Around five seconds after the puck hit me, blood began pouring down my face and onto my white Toews jersey-my dad says now it looks like a real hockey jersey. I rushed out of my seat and into the stadium hallway to where I could get some help, but still I felt nothing, not even a headache.

The United Center immediately came to my assistance with a wheelchair, ice and a Band-Aid. May I remind you, the puck cut through the top two layers of my skin, and a Band-Aid is designed for accidents like falling off your bike-obviously this didn’t give me much help.

I went to bed with fifteen stitches in my head that night, you could almost say I looked like Harry Potter. Although I could not find statistics on the amount of fans hit with a hockey puck each year, I can say I was one in 23,500 fans that night, and I got a great story to tell.

After contacting the Blackhawks, the organization ended up paying for my medical bills and gave me four free tickets to a playfoff game, and Hjalmarsson gave me a signed jersery. This made up for the the injury pretty well. And yes, don’t worry I got the puck too.

Tags: Blackhawks, Jayna Bardahl, opinions